Glee Recap: Twerk-Life Balance [Updated]

It was the best of Glee, it was the worst of Glee — and no, this isn’t another rant about how I prefer the NYC-based storylines of Rachel, Kurt & Co (even though I do).

Rather I’m talking about how the dubiously titled “The End of Twerking” featured one of the show’s most beautifully conceived and executed musical performances in recent memory, bookended by a second one that — were it not for a bile-soaked response monologue from Sue Sylvester — would’ve had me sending a strongly worded Tweet to @GLEEonFox.

I speak, of course, of Unique’s fantastic “If I Were a Boy” — a flawless example of how Fox’s high-school musical, even in Season 5, has the power to surprise us, to move us and to advance its story arcs through carefully chosen music. And on the flip side, I’m talking about Will Schuester’s disturbing performance of “Blurred Lines” — birthed in the halls of McKinley High under the banner that twerking is an inalienable right of the American teenager. “The fact is,” blathered the erstwhile Teacher of the Year, “twerking is blurring the lines between past and the present, between men and women, between tradition and envelope-pushing. It’s all in that Alan Thicke song that I love.”

Shall I let Sue take it away? “You need to back your ass up to the fact that you, a married 37-year-old, just performed a song about coercive sexual advances as nine minors twerked alongside you – down the hallways of a public high school.” Preach, Coach Sylvester!

In other news:

* After Tina catches Blaine’s enthusiastic twerking on video, Schue decides the controversial dance move is exactly what New Directions needs to win Nationals. Sue spies the club’s booty-popping rehearsals, however, bans the dance from McKinley and fires Schue after he rebels with the aforementioned “Blurred Lines” performance. He winds up in front of the school board and wins his case by proving the waltz, the Charleston and the lambada caused copious controversy back in their day, too — but in spite of the win, his crusade proves short-lived. (More on that in a second.)

* Rachel pretends to get a blunt-cut bob to give herself some different mojo, almost incurring the wrath of Funny Girl’s director. After a sexy “You Are Woman, I Am Man,” however, he decides her new look suits the role — and she tells him it was only a wig. In the same spirit, though, Kurt and Rachel get tattoos to jolt themselves out of the shock of losing Finn; Kurt’s gets botched — “It Gets Better” becomes “It’s Get Better” — but when he demands a refund, the tattoo artist gives him a bracing pep talk on embracing his crazy. (Show of hands: Who else half-thought the two of ‘em were gonna lip lock for a sec?) No romantic sparks, but Kurt eventually ends up with “It’s Got Bette Midler.” Rachel pretends she chickened out in the end, but actually she’s just keeping her ink a secret; the reveal of the ribcage “Finn” at the end of the hour was a thing of bittersweet beauty, no?

* Unique fights for her right to a separate bathroom where she won’t be bullied by transphobic jocks. After initially grappling with the horror of a purple port-a-potty welded to the floor of the rehearsal room — and that truly wrenching Beyoncé cover that somehow managed to make palpable the kind of pain a transgendered teen might feel in a hostile school environment — Unique finally scores a key to the faculty restroom through Sue. The only catch? Schue must agree to drop New Directions’ Twerk obsession.

* Bree reveals to Marley her affair with Jake, and when he doesn’t deny it, Marley gets a case of the sads.

Quotes of the Week
“Stop right there, voice of Elmo.” –Bree, bitchily cutting off Unique

“What if I run into Dan Savage in the steam room at the gym: I mean, I’ll be humiliated.” –Kurt, running worst-case scenarios after realizing the typo on his back tattoo

“OK, if ‘Oprah’ is going to drop ‘the Cosby kids’ off at the pool, I am not going to be here for it.” –Kitty, wanting to leave rehearsal after Unique makes a move to use the port-a-potty in the center of the room

“No one needs to know how you identify yourself — they just need to know that you washed your hands after.” –Schue, telling Unique she can use the faculty bathroom

“Then get out, BITCH!” –Becky, discovering Schue doesn’t have an appointment to see Sue

“Are you eating something? Did you get a pretzel from the guy down the street? Because I thought we were diet buddies!” –Rachel, wondering why Kurt’s post-tongue-pierce voice sounds weird

Anyhow, with that, I turn it over to you. Hit the poll and tell us what was your fave musical performance, then hit the comments and expand on your thoughts.

That was a good moment, yes. And I liked the storyline with Rachel tonight, too, as well as her duet with Paolo.
Cannot disagree with the quote from Sue on the “twerking” thing. I appreciate and agree with the sentiment Will had at one point that this is just the latest in a string of dance crazes that everyone makes a big fuss and clutches their pearls over while they happen, but years from now they’ll look either silly or quaint and people will wonder what all the outrage over the dance itself was about.
Still, though, a teacher twerking with his class? That is very…weird. To say the least. And to make it into some First Amendment rights sort of thing? No. Just no.

LOVED the Funny Girl duet! It was soooo good! That plus the Hummelberry scenes made this episode. That Finn tattoo just made me cry all over again. So sweet and so sad! Frankly I am over the Lima stuff, I just don’t care about the characters or the actors to feel like rooting for them. I wish they would just graduate the seniors and move the whole narrative to NY. It’s so good and fresh.

I agree 100%! Alex’ solo was phenomenal & the best (only good) part of the Lima side. Addressing the bathroom issues faced by a transperson (of any age) was excellent and laudable. The rest of the Lima side was contrived and trite (though the dance through years was well done and accurate).
LOVED (as always) the NYC side-!! Rachel’s duet with Paolo and minor rebellion were fantastic. LOVED the HummelBerry “get wild” outing, Kurt’s tattoo, messed up tat panic and correction. Did NOT like the tongue piercing, though Kurt’s lisp made that whole section hilarious-! I guess you can always take the piercing out & let it heal? But the correction was silly & cute; the lisp and “cyber-lucky” /winkwink was adorable. Chris is gorgeous, by the way; more of those, thank you. And LOVED Rachel’s sweet “Finn” tattoo. And that she kept it private and sweet. I’d expected Kurt’s tattoo to be Finn related, but this entire segment worked out perfectly (please lose the tongue piercing, eventually, though) Lastly, can we PLEASE drop Lima if you won’t do a NYC spin-off?? PLease?

I think it is VERY different tattooing someone you loved who died’s name as opposed to an ‘ex’s’. If Rachel’s fiancé had a problem with it I would say he is the one with the problem.
I’m not a big tattoo person, don’t have any myself, but I thought that was sweet.

I don’t like tattoos but I thought the tattoo “Finn: was sweet and a very discrete way for Rachel to keep Finn with her. I can’t understand why any future boyfriend/fiance/husband would have an issue with Rachel getting that tattoo of Finn! After all, Finn was Rachel’s person…she has the right to honor that!

Oh how i love Hummelberry! They could give me a full hour of Rachel and Kurt and I would be in heaven! But where was Santana? I missed her. Lea is so good as Fanny! I hope they keep doing the FG stuff as part of the NY SL it so fun! I can’t comment on the Lima stuff since I don’t watch that part of the show, but I really enjoyed the NY SL tonight.

I love Lea! She is so good! Musical Theater Gleek here so I Am Women You are Man was my favorite song tonight. Very touched to see Ryan keep his promise to honor Finn and Lea has my deepest admiration for everything she is doing as Rachel to honor him. Honestly for me that was the whole episode, once I realized where the SL was going I couldn’t pay attention to anything else. It was heartbreaking and touching.

That is pretty much my issue with all the Newbies, lack of acting ability and with the exception of Alex none sing well enough or are interesting enough for me to want to see them on my TV screen for 5 minutes let alone an entire episode.

Sam is pure beefcake and bland everything else. (since you’re being negative; I would have phrased it differently otherwise): Different people have different ideas of beauty. I much prefer Colfer’s model physique to Overstreet’s beefcake.

You stop. First of all – these “bodies” belong to real people. People on these boards seem to forget that fact and have no problem being cruel because the net in anonymous. Second of all . . . people are attracted to different things. I think Colfer and Criss and Overstreet all look great.

I have waited 4 long years for Kurt to be shirtless…it was well worth the wait. I think the reason Kurt hasn’t been shirtless is Chris was pudgier when the show started. I noticed around Season 3, he started getting rid of the baby fat and really becoming more chiseled. His face is more angular now and the chipmunk cheeks are gone. He looks fantastic. His most recent photo shoots are stunning. Chris is becoming a hunk.

I’d be worried if he WASN”T crying himself to sleep over these storylines. Like I realize Emma can’t be around much this season but is this really the best they could come up with? Rather than Sue it should be the parents who want him fired next.

I love the references to Finn from both Kurt and Rachel. I think the series should end with the whole crew in the audience of Rachel’s curtain call at Funny Girl with the camera panning down to Kurt’s playbill – opened to Rachel’s acknowledgements/thanks to all of her friends – with a special thanks to Finchel.

Remember this is the same school that made the principal the janitor, promoted the cheerleading advisor to principal (did she ever have that weapons charge dropped?), and has a seemingly non-stop parade of singers and dancers disrupting every class. So yeah, Shuster’s antics are kinda normal in the Lima universe.

This episode was a stronger effort than last week, I didn’t feel apathetic at all this time. The songs were really spot on, especially “If I Were A Boy”, the screentime between Ohio and New York was surprisingly split evenly, and the twerking aspect of it all, was surprisingly not overhyped and pushed to extremes, I really appreciated that. What Will did to sort of display the evolution of how a dance from each decade was initially perceived as inappropriate and disturbing, but then at the end of the day, it’s just dancing, and his Sue Sylvester style rampage in the hallway was funny and unexpected, Oh God, but clearly Sue can do better than that. I’m glad that Kurt and Rachel are not forgetting Finn, and when we find out that Rachel tattooed Finn’s name on her ribcage, that was just bittersweet, and it’s the first steps to Rachel moving forward with her life, and keeping Finn’s memory and spirit in her heart forever and always. Unlike last week, Jake and Marley didn’t bore me out in any way, but Bree still does, given how useless she is. Also this episode wasn’t frustrating or painful to watch, it was just pure fun for the most part, and I’m glad they brought back Rod Remington, and Andrea (why is she back, didn’t she quit last season in “Naked”?), and Sue’s Corner was back in session, oh my God, that was some old school Glee elements right there. I hope next week can be like this one, and bring up the strength and togetherness of the storytelling. My only real complaint for this episode is that where was Santana in the midst of all this? All in all, solid episode, much better than last week’s apathetic mess- 8.5/10

Stronger than last week isn’t a ringing endorsement! Lima is a weak link driving people away. The new actors are so weak it’s hard to root for them. The episode was a rehash of previous story lines. Jarley/Bree = S1&2 Finchel/Santana, Unique/Bullies = Kurt/Karosky w/o Finn in the mix. Will’s Blurred Lines = Will’s Brittany performance with the kids back in S2. Fight for the Arts = Rocky Horror. They guys wanting to beat up the bullies & the Club uniting was exactly what how it was done in S2 reacted to Kurt getting bullied and Rachel getting egged by Jesse. The biggest difference is the Original actors were so good that they were able to sell it and made you care about them. The only thing the Newbies make feel is the desire to change the channel. Unfortunately as long as Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Naya Rivera are around I’m not willing to give Glee up completely.

Your right, the new kids are nowhere near as engaging as the original cast are, the Quarterback episode reinforced that point, but for people to say that they’re outright awful, useless, and stupid, THAT is what ticks me off. However I’m glad u pointed out that parallel, u know with Jake, Ryder, and Sam wanting to attack those guys for hurting Unique being similar to Finn, Puck, Mike, Matt, and Kurt wanting to attack Vocal Adrenaline for egging Rachel, I just thought of that before seeing your comment. One last comment, I didn’t say or even suggest that this week’s episode being as good as it was meant that the overall show’s former glory has been restored, I’m fully aware that it doesn’t shine quite as bright as it used to, but that doesn’t mean it completely died either. However, no one can deny this; the main reason anyone was able to adapt to the new cast members is because some of the originals were still around.

That is what I want. As much as I love Ioan Gruffud, I would love for later in the season for the director and producers of Funny Girl to decide that they’re going to recast and go with 2 unknowns and for the new Nick Arnstein to be played by Jesse St. James. I’ve wanted a scenario like that since season 1.

The Lima stuff was way too preachy and someone needs to send Melissa Benoist, that new mean Cherrio and Jacob Artist to acting classes. They can’t act and can barley sing. They are terrible! Poor Matt Morrison, that Blurred Lines stuff was just horrible. I don’t like Unique, the guy just can’t act, it all felt forced and fake. Lea continues to amaze me, she is so talented, she and Chris Colfer made this episode worth my time tonight.

Yeah it’s hard for me to feel anything for characters that are so poorly acted. Like I know I should feel bad for Marley and in theory I do, but watching the scenes I’m either suffering second hand embarrassment or trying to figure out what they were going for. Granted the writing doesn’t really help, but still…

Say what you will about their acting, but anytime I see someone mouth off about Jacob and/or Melissa’s vocal ability I want to pull a Cat Stark and CLAW MY OWN FACE OFF. They might not be Lea or Kevin, but they’re miles ahead of Heather and I prefer them even Chord or Darren.

Tina is shinning this season, even when they give her two lines like in this episode, but Im happy that now she is coming back and Its funny and sweet, thats the Tina we know. And OMG!!!! Jenna looks stunning, so beautifu, hope we see her in NY with Rachel, Kurt and Santana soon and hope she has an (uncut) solo soon!!! She deserves it!

I couldn’t believe they did ‘Blurred Lines’ at all, much less with the teacher who has been the model for progressive attitudes leading the way, esp on chorus of ‘I know you want it’ while high school boys back girls up against walls/lockers. And I think the writers were just checking the box/covering their asses by having Sue call him out on it.
Recently Mr Shue punishes and shames a teen girl for not wearing a revealing outfit she’s uncomfortable in and this week he’s leading a date rape anthem?? I’m stunned by how bipolar an episode can be – a great, sensitive story line about a transgender teen along side one that’s offensive and promotes rape culture. What if the song ‘Blurred Lines’ had been assigned to the boys in the bathroom with Unique? Just like ‘If I Was a Boy’ it would be a different but powerful interpretation — the boys could sing about how they’re ‘gonna take a good girl’ cause they ‘know she wants it’.

AMEN to everything you said! I was digusted with the blurred lines and Sue’s comment made it only a bit better Jacob who is trying to sleep with the good girl marley is singing to her ‘i know you want it, thats just extra ew on top of a lot of ew.

Thank you, Eli. I don’t understand why there is so much uproar over “Blurred Lines” when I don’t recall this much outrage over songs like Pitbull’s “I Know You Want Me” or Enrique Iglesias’ “Tonight I’m Loving You,” which work along similar themes. Heck, I even liked it when the American Idol Season 12 girls did it on tour. It’s a fun song; it’s just the video that’s weird to me.

Another hit and miss episode. While the storyline with Unique worked, (and I shamelessly laughed at the port-a-john with the question marks), they have really made Will’s behavior as a teacher quite the mess. It’s as though they are setting up the character to be fired by the end of the season and dismantle the glee club altogether. But I still enjoyed the music as I do every week The NY stuff was good and I love they are not ignoring the loss of Finn, but i missed Santana.

I agree with Paul. Maybe I’m wrong, but to me it’s about a guy trying to hook up with a girl at a party, and she’s clearly into him but she says no because of societal or religious rules. But he can tell she wants it so he presses her to break whatever rules are making her say no.

The Blurred Lines routine was actually a very caustic assault on the Thick(e) original. I’m a little surprised people were too busy being outraged to notice. Maybe folks need to spend some time looking at the take-offs on Youtube, some of which are infinitely superior to the original.

Glad you see a caustic assault on the Thicke original. But I think that most of the rest of us think that 90 percent of the teens that watched this episode now believe that twerking is their constitutional right. And a necessity if you want to be “in.”

The blurred lines song was just too awful to watch. The writers have seriously lost it to show a teacher sing such a sexual song in a school with his students twerking all around him.

And what kind of defense Will put up in front of the School Board? The Waltz, Charleston or Lambada might have been considered offensive in those times but at least they are dance forms involving feet and body movement. Twerking is jhst shaking your booty in the most comprising of positions. His defense was as weak as the writing of his character this season.

Blurred Lines is disgusting and i cant believe they covered that mess. I actually laughed out loud during Marley’s performance. Rachel’s Funny Girl scenes were enjoyable but that tattoo is nagl. I really missed Santana this episode. McKinley continues to be the worst.

I like the song “Wrecking Ball” but I can’t stand the sound of Miley Cyrus’ voice and I don’t want to support her new image by buying it on iTunes. I’ll glad add Melissa Benoit’s cover to my workout playlist instead; she can actually sing.

Oh man, I was in stitches over the hilarity of the twerking. The scene of Tina recording Blaine was SO FUNNY. I liked the commentary over Blurred Lines. So many people don’t get the message of the song (Schue) while there are those who blatantly do (Sue). The show performed this song tongue-in-cheek, and I love when they do that type of stuff. The NYC stuff was clearly the highlight. I love that we’re continuing to see Kurt rebel against type and find his place in NYC. While I have no doubt the tongue ring will come out, I hope we get another reference of the tattoo in the future (I wish Santana had been in this episode)!!

I guess Santana was sleeping at Dani’s house during this episode. Though how the writers could have done a plot where Kurt and Rachel comically attempt to rebel and get botched tattoos and not have her there to make fun of them, I’ll never know.

Am I the only one who wanted Schue to slap Becky in the face when she yelled BITCH! at him? If we’re supposed to accept she wants to be treated like any “normal” person, shouldn’t that also include the other side of the coin? That if she acts horribly she gets the same consequences as anyone else would?

Seriously….Jake cheating on Marley with someone like Bree…I think that’s pretty unrealistic. He surely must have known that she would tell Marley…or did he want her to know? I get that it’s frustrating for him but then why not break it off with Marley before sleeping with someone else…strange writing

I think Santana makes great chemistry even better. I love Hummelberry but one needs to balance those sweet dreamy flavors with a little down to earth spice with bite. (also watching top chef too much I guess lol)

I thought Marley sounded great singing “Wrecking Ball”, I just didn’t like that they recreated the video with it. The song is so much better when I just hear it on the radio than when I see it with the video. I’d listen to Marley’s version over Miley’s any day.

I’ve been to this site several times. I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion and that they have a right to express it. What I am a bit confused about though, is that more often than not the people posting here have said that they don’t watch the episodes. For not watching, these people seem to know a lot about what’s going on. Is it a case of honestly don’t like the series? Not a problem if you don’t like it. You don’t have to watch it. Or is it a case of don’t want to admit that they do. Personally, I’m a fan. I don’t have TV, so I always watch on the internet. I’m constantly going beck and re-watching my favorite episodes. As Rhett Butler told Scarlet O’Hara, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” whether you like the idea or not. What I’m getting to is that if anyone who is interested in being the least bit open minded about the new cast members, they might want to go back and check out the first couple of episodes of S1. You may find that the original cast was just as unappealing as the new one is. They were unprofessional, unorganized, and undeveloped. I do happen to agree with the general consensus that S4 left something to be desired though.

Hey Kat, I agree with ur comment for the most part, it’s a bit puzzling how people who never watch Glee on a regular basis seem to know a lot about it, and it’s true that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I do think people should be more open-minded about the show’s current status. But what makes u say that the original cast was unappealing in season 1? Because when the show first started, I immediately became drawn to them, and became attached to them very quickly. So could you elaborate more on that specific point?

Caught up on the episode over the weekend. Not impressed. Shue used to be the guy that stood up for the proverbial square peg in a round hole. The fact that he’d actually, for a moment, refuse to give up that awful twerk notion to get Unique out of bathroom hell was so out of character. Even for a show that has bordered on the absurd more often than not throughout it’s existence this was a doozy of ridiculous. What teacher in his right mind would think twerking with a group of teens was appropriate let alone Blurred Lines and twerking for a class performance? Then again, Will seems to have issues keeping that teacher-student line clear. After all, he asked a high school kid to be his best man. In real life, that’s the kind of teacher that has parents raising eyebrows and wondering if it’s worth a closer look-see.

“You need to back your ass up to the fact that you, a married 37-year-old, just performed a song about coercive sexual advances as nine minors twerked alongside you – down the hallways of a public high school.” — Sue has never said anything more true than this. I haven’t seen the episode yet and at this point I don’t want to. I think it’s weird and bizarre and disturbing and gross that a teacher would willingly sing Blurred Lines in a high school with his students. I mean…c’mon…

“You may find that the original cast was just as unappealing as the new one is.” Not sure why I said this. It’s not what I meant. Not really sure what I did mean by this comment, but I stand by the rest of it. I may have been referring to a comment made by another person earlier. Don’t remember.